“……Do you really have to do it now?”
Philomell’s voice trembled.
“It’s not that I have to, but it won’t take long. Wouldn’t it be better to finish it quickly and have a leisurely meal?”
“I want to have dinner with Your Majesty as soon as possible.”
“Thank you. I’ll be there soon.”
No, it’s not thank you…!
Philomell bit her lip.
Now, this was the only way. After taking a deep breath, she cried out, “Ah!” and clutched her stomach with both hands.
Her body slowly crumpled.
“Philomell!”
Fortunately, Eustis’s arm caught Philomell’s back just before she hit the floor.
“What’s wrong!”
“My stomach, my stomach hurts so much……”
It was acting with all her might, but her tone was as stiff as if she were reading a book.
Philomell basically had no talent for acting.
Naturally, the expressions of Count Polan and the servants watching her became strange.
She could tell herself.
It was a failed feigned illness.
“My stomach, my stomach……”
But she couldn’t stop in the middle and continued acting, even though no one believed her.
“Philomell! Get a grip!”
No, one person believed her.
The Emperor, holding Philomell in his arms, cried out.
“What are you doing! Why aren’t you calling the court physician!”
“Yes, yes!”
At his roar, the servants scattered.
But not being able to wait for them to bring the court physician, the Emperor moved himself.
Even through her closed eyelids, she could feel a bright light. He had used teleportation magic to take Philomell.
“What kind of illness is it!”
“That’s……”
The young physician, who was holding Philomell’s stomach at the Emperor’s question, only wore a troubled expression. He was the unlucky one who had to examine her because the chief court physician was away.
“You have a mouth, why can’t you speak? Is it perhaps…… a serious illness?”
“Well, it’s not that……”
The physician was almost on the verge of tears.
Clearly, in his opinion, there was nothing wrong, but because the Emperor was acting like this, he couldn’t tell the truth.
Philomell, who was lying on the bed and watching the situation with half-closed eyes, apologized to the physician in her heart.
‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please hold on a little longer.’
She didn’t know exactly when the Book of Destiny would return to its place, but it didn’t seem to be yet.
It was then. Gurgle.
Philomell’s still empty stomach growled loudly.
“Damn it, what kind of illness makes such a sound from the stomach.”
Philomell wanted to seal that mouth shut with glue.
‘How embarrassing!’
Eventually, the Emperor even said something he shouldn’t have.
“If you can’t cure her, you will die. The same goes for the others. I will wipe out the line of physicians in this imperial palace.”
Ah, I can’t stay still any longer.
“Your Majesty……”
Philomell made the weakest voice she could.
“Philomell! Are you in a lot of pain!”
The Emperor approached the bedside.
“……It hurts a little. And please don’t talk like that. Even if you can’t cure me, how is that the physicians’ fault? If physicians disappear from the imperial palace, who will take care of the sick? They are also someone’s parents, siblings, children. I’ve always been uncomfortable whenever Your Majesty talks about killing or saving someone……”
As Philomell continued to talk, he wore an embarrassed expression.
“……I understand. I’ll be careful. Still, it’s a relief. It seems you have the strength to speak.”
At that moment, the door to the physician’s office opened, and the chief court physician rushed in.
“I apologize! I missed the servant who came to get me because our paths crossed……”
“Where have you been until now! Do you want to die……”
The Emperor, barely holding back what he wanted to say, pointed to the bed.
“Examine Philomell.”
The chief court physician looked at the Emperor with a puzzled face and approached Philomell.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Her face changed as she examined Philomell’s body.
Then, she looked down at her patient with playful eyes.
‘I’ve been caught. That it’s just a feigned illness.’
Unlike the young physician, she, with her accumulated experience, would be able to tell the Emperor the truth as it is.
She had a track record of calmly informing the Emperor that Ellensia was feigning illness when she fell into the water during the boat trip incident.
But instead of going to the Emperor, the court physician whispered in Philomell’s ear.
“How many weeks of sick leave should I give you?”
“……”
After a moment of consideration, Philomell replied in an equally small voice.
“One day is enough.”
The chief court physician smiled and fabricated Philomell’s illness appropriately before informing the Emperor.
“That’s a relief. Get some rest.”
Philomell grabbed the Emperor’s sleeve as he was about to leave the physician’s office. It would be a problem if he went back to the library already.
“Could you stay here a little longer?”
“……It would be more comfortable for you if I wasn’t here.”
“I’m sick, so I wish someone would be by my side. Preferably Your Majesty. Is it…… too much to ask?”
“No. I will.”
Eustis, who sat next to the bed, nagged her not to overdo it and to take care of herself before falling silent.
He silently stayed by her side, and after quite some time, when Philomell pretended to fall asleep, he got up.
Thus, with the help of the chief court physician, Philomell’s feigned illness was not discovered and passed over.
The Book of Destiny also seemed to have returned to its original place in time, as no further commotion occurred afterward.
Philomell spent a day resting in the physician’s office, taking time to think about the contents of the Book of Destiny.
And for a while, items sent by the Emperor flooded the South Palace. These included fruits from the World Tree and various tonic ingredients.
* * *
State Guesthouse, Dining Room.
Philomell was having lunch with the Emperor.
“I came to do what I couldn’t do last time.”
That was what Eustis said when he visited the South Palace just thirty minutes ago.
‘What I couldn’t do last time’ referred to lunch. It was what Philomell had said to prevent him from entering the Emperor’s private library a few days ago.
“Let’s have a meal together. Right now.”
Immediately afterward, the Emperor personally came to have that meal, which had been canceled because she had grabbed her stomach and collapsed.
When Philomell asked why he didn’t just call her to the Imperial Palace, the Emperor said with a stern expression.
“What if you collapse again on the way when you’re not well?”
Due to the previous feigned illness incident, he seemed to have the perception that Philomell was extremely weak. She couldn’t actively deny it.
The atmosphere of the meal was very quiet. The sound of the plate and fork touching was particularly loud.
“……”
“……”
The two silently brought food to their mouths.
‘It’s awkward because it’s quiet……’
Whenever she had a meal with him, Ellensia was always there, so it was a silence she hadn’t felt in a long time.
When she was young, Philomell also chattered in front of the Emperor, but as she got older, she became more careful with her words.
Suddenly, an old memory came to mind.
It was when she was nine or ten years old.
One day, when she was supposed to have dinner with the Emperor, he had urgent business to take care of.
The young Philomell was left alone in front of the large dining table.
Although the Emperor had told her to eat alone, she stubbornly didn’t touch the food and waited. Because the main dish served that day was made from the carp she had raised.
It was a carp that she had raised in the pond in the backyard of the West Palace, where Philomell lived at the time.
Even though all the young princess had done was occasionally throw fish food, the title of ‘Philomell’s carp’ was important.
It was an expression of how much she liked and respected the Emperor, to the point of serving him the carp she had raised herself.
‘Now that I think about it, it was really childish.’
But how could an idea coming from a child’s head not be childish?
At the time, Philomell’s actions to gain the Emperor’s favor were all similarly childish.
She was a child who smiled contentedly at the thought of feeding the plump carp to the Emperor.
The young Philomell’s heart was torn as she watched the carp cool down in front of her.
“I won’t eat until Your Majesty comes!”
She became stubborn and made things difficult for the servants.
It was a time when she was consciously trying to be mature in her head, but her actions didn’t always follow.
Fortunately, they didn’t get into trouble for not taking care of the princess’s meal. Because Philomell secretly grabbed a fork and knife when she got too hungry.
“Ahem, still, it’s unfilial to harm your body by starving yourself. I can’t worry His Majesty the Emperor.”
Even after the meal, which she had eaten while being conscious of others, Philomell remained at the table with regret.
Since she had come all the way here, she intended to wait for the Emperor and show her face at least once.
But after filling her stomach, she became sleepy while waiting quietly. Philomell, who was resting her chin on her hand, dozed off.
It was quite some time later that she woke up to the sound of dishes clashing.
When she opened her eyes, Eustis was sitting at the table, eating. He was busy picking at the flesh of the carp that had long gone cold.
“You’re awake. Why are you staying and suffering instead of going back after finishing your meal?”
Philomell suddenly became worried. She wondered if he would think she had fed him a bad dish.
“Your Majesty, it’s cold, so please don’t eat it. You should tell the servant to bring out a new dish……”
“It’s okay. It’s edible.”
“But……”
Despite her dissuasion, the Emperor ate the carp dish until the end. Until not a single piece of flesh was left.
‘That kind of thing also happened……’
For a moment, she felt like he was a father.
Philomell immediately corrected her mind, which was about to fall into strange emotions.
Snap out of it. It’s a thing of the past.
She opened her tightly closed mouth.
“Your Majesty.”
“What is it?”
“Didn’t you say you had something you wanted to say to me before? That, a confession……”
“……”
There was something he hadn’t been able to say on the day she received a large amount of property from him, due to Ellensia’s appearance.
She thought that one of the reasons why the Emperor kept paying attention to her was that confession.
If he was acting like this because he had something he wanted to say but couldn’t, she would set the stage for him to say it.
However, Eustis remained silent with a serious expression.
Philomell was slowly becoming anxious. How great must the words be for him to hesitate like this?
She racked her brain, but she couldn’t even guess what it could be.
A confession? What could he possibly have to say to me that requires such a grand word?